6 Common Decision-Making Blunders That Could Kill Your Business

Among the logical errors nearly everybody makes is thinking only everybody else make logical errors.

Humans are often very irrational. If you’ve ever explored behavioral economics or psychology, you’ve likely found a host of examples demonstrating situations when we make objectively — and clearly — bad decisions.

With the way our brains function, it makes sense. We do what we can to simplify the world around us, as well as the choices we have to make. Imagine, for example, if you had to think really hard about every step you took while walking. “Pick up foot one, keep body standing, look at the ground in front of me, decide where to put foot one, put foot one down, pick up foot two….”

Going through that process with each step we took would be draining. Plus, we couldn’t focus on our friend talking right next to us.

This can be translated to decision making. Each day, we make thousands of choices, from what time to wake up to what to eat to when we should go to the bathroom. Many of these are on what we could call autopilot. It’s a beautiful thing because it means we don’t have to waste our energy on choices we frequently make. Instead, the answers come easily.

The problem with this automatic processing is that there are instances when we jump to conclusions that are wrong. Behavioral economists and psychologists have done a great job uprooting many of these fallacies. With studies and information at our fingertips, we can make better choices.

Below are six of the largest decision-making blunders we all make. Avoiding them will dramatically improve your decision making, which can impact your quality of life and success.